Forward Unto Renewal
by PsOhKiEpMpOeNr9
Summary: Data Log: 2558 Cortana is lost, Master Chief is devastated. New beginnings appear when John receives his new A.I., Stephan. He noted that all was not lost, but could be found once again. Join Master Chief and Stephan in the search the his Legendary lost 'family.'
1. Return of the Spartan

Return of the Spartan

Chapter 1

DATA ENTRY: .kt.

YEAR BY SOLAR CALENDAR: 11/14/2558

LOCATION: UNSC space. Currently orbiting an Inhospitable planet. Name of planet is Sokisha. Named after Japanese heritage pioneers that discovered planet and researched its qualities in 2510. Approx. 2 week Slipspace distance from Reach remnants. Aboard the UNSC Cydonia-class Super prowler _Star Shadow. _YOU DIDN'T SEE THIS!

Stephan recorded this data along with several other things. He was a smart A.I., one of hundreds now being implemented into the UNSC ships. Stephan was under a year old, basically built to be especially for the Spartans and could transfer to other systems when one was inactive. That way if they were to die, he could move to another team member, or a system he could record data and get a recovery team for him/her. He was part of a recovery team himself. To be more direct, he was Cortana's replacement drifting within the Master Chief's helmet.

He was especially interested in the ship he was on. It was the most extensive build of prowler amassing at exactly 785 meters long, 355 meters wide, and 149 meters in height. Its Slipspace system was a special advanced system. Along with the standard stealth equipment that set it above the rest of the ships, plus it had extra stealth equipment and extensive offensive equipment to set it as questionably one of the best fighting machines. Most other Prowler ships have enough to give air support in infiltration/exfiltration missions, or like the Strike Prowler, to blow a hole in defenses and then disappear. The Super Prowler however, can appear out of nowhere and tear up groups of ships that are larger than it. Plus, there is only two other ships like this in build. The only people that know their existence are those who built it, witnessed it, and have been aboard it.

The ship had a bubble on the front for a deck. From there, the ship extended out like an arrowhead down 4/5 of the ship. The last chunk was squared off. This unique design helped it, like other Prowlers, stay hidden in deep space and move swiftly through both space and Slipspace.

He enjoyed picking the Chief's brain of all the things he experienced. Most of the data within Cortana's portable database was lost because that data had never been recorded anywhere else. The only facts left behind were first hand from the troops who had managed to survive the tragedies. Master Chief's mind was easily the greatest and most extensive set of recordings, including the deaths of the last Prophets and the once existent bond between the Sangheili and humanity. He was part of a team of Spartan-4's and Spartan-2. The recovery mission was of a ship lost nearly 30 years ago. It was named the _Spirit of Fire_ and had reportedly found a shield world like Requiem and battled the Covenant. The reason this ship was interesting was for a reason Master Chief told very few.

He had immediately tried to dig up what was left of the Spartan 2's after returning to Earth and losing Cortana. The last transmission released from the ship was that it had lost its Shaw-Fujikawa drive and was now drifting aimlessly in the general direction of Reach. It never managed to arrive as it was moving very slowly to preserve power. When they first deployed to Harvest, an inventory was taken, showing _three _Spartan 2's. If the crew was smart, they should be preserved in cryo-pods.

Master Chief was currently in cyclical-sleep as well, along with the Spartan 4's: Grutsky, Johnson, Smith, and Aria. Johnson was just a nickname, given in honor of the late Sergeant Major Avery Johnson. This Johnson was a sharpshooter, and sometimes a smart mouth, like the good old Johnson. They were part of a team called Alpha Cross. They were in Slipspace and would return to 'normal' space within a few minutes. While they were prepping a Pelican in dock A, Stephan was drifting throughout the ship systems, doing miscellaneous stuff to help around with Madelyn, the ship's smart A.I.

Madelyn. Now she was an interesting character her design was rather common for the early 2010's. She had black, curly hair that rode down to her elbows, a gray shirt with scribbling that supported a local softball team. She wore short shorts and flip flops. In proportion to a human, she was 5'5". She had a Nor-Eastern accent that gave her a kick in her voice. She was a rather upfront and fun loving, according to her core logic. She was rather annoyed when under attack and didn't like firing weapons. She much preferred working the stealth equipment. Often enough, Madelyn would line up the shot and let someone else fire it.

He, on the other hand, loved collecting data on things, studying them, and going in the field. Stephan also rather enjoyed taking over weapons and blasting away at Covenant. The bastards deserved a good thrashing. His compact core logic explained him as one that enjoyed observing from afar, and jumping hands on with things he enjoys. His avatar was 1960's mobster. He wore a leather jacket, with a white under shirt. He had gray slacks and black loafers. And resting upon his brown, shoulder length hair, was a black fedora with a white band.

This projection appeared as he stopped in the cryo-bay room. The full body figure stood with his right knee bent in slightly. "So, are they ready?" He asked the head scientist on the ship Dr. Chakov.

"Vust giz me a minute." He replied in a heavy Scandinavian accent. "Ze sleep-veducing drugz are taking effect. Zey vill be out shortvy after ve exit Slipspace." The doctor turned from the holo-pad, and Stephan turned to the cryo-tubes. Each individual one held some of humanity's finest troops. The four Spartan 4s had a different armor setup for each, SNIPER armor set on Johnson, as he was the sharpshooter with teal and steel armor and a silver visor. Smith had an EVA setup, red and gold armor with a black visor. Aria had a HAZOP setup with a purple visor and deep blue and hunter green armor. Grutsky, the group leader behind Master Chief, had a OPERATOR setup with a vivid, red visor and onyx with aquamarine trim. He had never seen the helmetless face of any of them.

Stephan could almost feel the jolting of the ship as it left Slipspace. He tapped into the camera feed and watched the swirling clouds of the methane covered planet. One match would probably light up the entire atmosphere, it was that thick. Then, Stephan tapped into the cryo-bay and watched the vital signs of the team as they came to.

The first to awaken was Aria. She was a light sleeper. It took a lot of sleep-inducing chemicals to keep her down. Master Chief was next, without a limp and stepped out triumphantly until he saw Aria was already out, stretching. Next was what they called a tie, even though Johnson actually came to .035 seconds faster. Stephan kept this information to himself to keep the arguments down between the rivaling siblings. Plus Grutsky was stumbling out like a drunk from a bar on St. Patrick's Day. Finally, after another 1.2 minutes, Smith came to and stepped out with a small limp that regained feeling in 30 seconds.

As they walked by and off to the armory, Master Chief pulled Stephan's chip from the holo-pad and placed it in his helmet. Instantly, Stephan released the cooling sensation of the fluid that linked them together. He traveled through his neurons and pathological psyche. He watched through the Master Chief's visor and other cameras, watching carefully what the others chose for weaponry.

Aria picked up a BR55 and a M6 pistol. Johnson took a sniper rifle and a MA5. Master Chief took up a shotgun and a rocket launcher. Smith took a Spartan Laser and M7 submachine gun. Grutsky lifted out a DMR and a heavy grenade launcher.

They then headed over to the deck. They moved in a formation, two in front, three in back. Master Chief and Aria walked in front and the other 3 in back. He listened in on the conversation. Master Chief started, "Now that we're here, on one of the most secretive ships in the entire service, I can tell you what we are after on that ship. Our goal is to retrieve the remaining Spartan 2's on the _Spirit of Fire_."

"Anything else sir?" Grutsky asked.

"If we can, we need to recover any lost, old technology of the earlier decades. Any important figureheads, like a scientist or if the Captain is still alive."

"Sounds like a search warrant more than a recovery mission." Smith inquired.

"Yeah, those things may have deteriorated and the people probably have died by now." Johnson said. Aria stayed quiet, soaking in the information. They approached the Pelican and boarded. Each took a seat, Spartan 4's on the left and Master Chief on the right. The panel that operated over dock A opened enough to let out the Pelican. It drifted silently across the port side of the _Spirit of Fire_. The once great letters painted on the sides of the ship were reduced to SFIPII CF FIKF. The entire ship was riddled with holes, some only impact from asteroids or only a few decks deep. Several holes were punctured all the way through the ship or a large portion thereof. Just under the slanted walls were several docking stations next to each other. According to the little amount of information gathered, the furthest to the stern of the ship would be closest to the cryo bay and a dumbwaiter. It was also the only one without an airlock covering it.

The ship drew into the pre-described bay and dropped. The bay didn't have an atmosphere or gravity, and the shield separating the vacuum of space and bay itself flickered. The room, when the shield was on and it could be seen, was a large open space with only a pedestal in the middle for the Pelican to land on. Several other pedestals were available, as what once sat on them was pulled out into space long ago. Crates were anchored along the walls. A catwalk system ran over the bay itself with lights dangling from the ceiling even higher. A lift was positioned center on the rear wall. It stopped in front of a special glass covered observation catwalk that led to a sort of control room to the far left with an office and glass windows. The office appeared to have its lights on, casting little light in the empty hangar.

With the pilot and copilot separated from the rear of the troopship, the Spartans dropped out and scattered across room. Five lights could be seen moving around in the darkness of space. Aria moved under the protruding control tower. Johnson leapt onto an empty pedestal to the left and went prone with his rifle on a bipod. Grutsky took cover behind a nearby crate on the forward end of the hangar. Smith camped under the empty pedestal to the right of the Pelican. Master Chief approached the lift in the rear and stepped up. He pulled up on the switch, but it didn't budge.

"Damn." John said. "No power out here at all." He flashed his light first left, then right. When looking right, he saw an 'in case of emergency' ladder. His armor clanged loudly with each step until he pressed his hand against a hatch and peered into the hallway. From what Stephan saw, it was a classic steel wall and a few active airlocks. Only darkness was viewable past either of them. Master Chief turned and clunked down the hall into the control room. It had a leather swivel chair, a desk with several drawers, a computer and a holo-pad. Several sheets of paper were scattered on the desk and floor. Master Chief slid Stephan's chip out of its slot in his head and placed it into the ship's system.

Stephan's dashing avatar appeared almost immediately before Master Chief. "Well I got good news and bad." Stephan started. "After checking up on the systems, the good news is the captain's Neural Implants have left a path that can be operated to reach the cryo-bay."

"So what could be the bad news?" Master Chief asked.

"I dropped in on the observation deck, and from what it appears, the best the machine could predict, there is a small, minute chance that we may just happen to…" Stephan stalled the inevitable.

"Come on! Spit it out." Master Chief growled.

"Well from what it appears, this ship is on a course to collide with Sokisha." Stephan finished.

"You've gotta be shitin' me." Master Chief said, jaw agape as much as it could be in his helmet.

"I shit you not." Stephan retorted sarcastically. A small smile crawled across his face. "Let's get to work then." Stephan's arms began to move with the rhythm he set up. "Ba ba da di ba da di da." His arms stopped pointing at the lights, which lit up with ease. "Zi da di da di ba ti." Now his arms pointed at the shield gate which turned back on and stayed on. "Ba di da da di za!" He now had each arm pointed at a separate vent, which blew atmosphere into the hangar. "Don't worry, I got all the airlocks along the way."

The Spartan 4s responded without voice and gathered at the lift. They drifted up into the glassed over catwalk. They gathered at the airlock as Stephan flicked on the lights on the other side. The door slid open and they charged through to the next one. This new systematic gate was similar to that of the _Pillar of Autumn. _Two levels, one of titanium-A and an inner glass door. Each slid open as they should to show a hallway of all open airlocks down to the end.

However, this one hadn't closed all the way and instead had been blocked with a canister of flammable material. It was also similar in structure to the ones on the _Pillar of Autumn. _Blue ones usually related to the cryo-bay, red were explosive, and yellow had something to do with supplies. Stephan brought up a map of the ship's interior to show them their path. On the other side of that bolt head they would turn left and take a dumbwaiter up 3 levels for the closest entrance to the cryo-bay. The Spartans moved up the hallway until Stephan spoke over the COM. "Stop. I think I saw something on a camera."

He brought the camera feed up on their HUDs and showed the camera from just inside the room on the right corner of dumbwaiter entrance. It showed the butt of the canister on the right, and the steel colored hallway to a bulkhead that was closed. It showed some sort of mosquito like creature dart past in front of the camera. Stephan stopped the video, re-winded to the best view of the creature, stopped, and enhanced the image. The Spartan-4's had no idea what it was, but Master Chief grunted in aspiration the second he saw it. "Damn. The Flood are on the ship too. That means we have to move quickly."

"The Flood?" Aria asked. "What's that?"

"Probably that!" Smith bellowed out, pointing at the creature as it crawled along the side of the canister. Grutsky rose his DMR to scatter the thing, but Master Chief stopped him by placing his hand on the rifle.

"Careful. Shooting the canister could blow a hole into an unknown nest of them or vacuum." Master Chief explained as he pushed the gun down. Grutsky dropped his rifle to his right knee and breathed. Before Stephan could interrupt again, they heard a sizzling noise as a grate fell to the ground. Then a bright beam of blue shot across the entrance, missing the Flood Infection form and struck the canister, erupting in flames. A bright ball glowed and scattered as the bottom portion of the airlock was blown off. In the resulting fire, with all lights blown out, the bright blue light within the Forerunner Sentinel glowed sinisterly as it turned to face them.

"Move! Now" Master Chief said as the laser opened fire. The Spartans dove behind the extended airlock edges.

"What do we do?" Johnson said.

"Shoot it till it dies." Aria said, standing and firing her BR55, which blasted the Forerunner, sending it down. It crashed and exploded into blue flames. The Spartans moved down the hall in a rush now to get to the survivors before the Flood _or _Sentinels got to them.

They charged through the flames and called the dumbwaiter. Their shields were wearing thin by the time the dumbwaiter arrived. Master Chief was sweating in his suit as they got onto the cool, ventilated dumbwaiter. It lifted them about 2 and a half levels before emergency stopping. With the locks in place, the lift couldn't move in any direction. The hatch 1 and a half levels above them opened up and Flood Carrier forms jumped from the edge to dodge the piercing blue light chasing after them. Each one looked like a hideously deformed Kig-yar or Sangheili with large hunches in their back. The hunches however, were more like malignant tumors, ready to burst form their spines to birth 10 more Infection forms. There were three in total, two Kig-yar and one Sangheili. Each belly flopped off the glass floor and exploded midair.

Infection forms scattered as Forerunner Sentinels glided out of hallway and down the chamber. The airlock a half floor above them opened as Combat forms jumped from the ledge and landed on the Sentinels. Smith caught an Infection form mid jump and crushed it in his hands. The sac was where their juices and most internal organs were located. Crushing that almost instantly killed them. The Combat forms were mostly Sangheili and Human. They clung to the Sentinels as they barreled into the walls. Some exploded, about five survived.

"Move Alpha Cross. Operation 009'er" Grutsky screamed as it began to rain Flood and Sentinel. Three boosted Aria and she clung to the ledge. Two launched Johnson and he grabbed her legs. This continued until they made a human ladder. Master Chief grabbed onto Grutsky and climbed to the top. Grutsky followed, next Smith, then Johnson, and then Arial climbed the ledge. Master Chief fired a rocket at the wire that the dumbwaiter had stopped on. A loud bang followed by the scream of the brakes as the super heated metal clanged against itself. The dumbwaiter plummeted with the Combat forms. The Sentinels actually followed them down.

They didn't get very far before a loud, thunderous boom echoed through the shaft. By the time they turned to face the Spartans, Stephan had already closed the airlock. The Spartans saw the auto door that led to cryo-bay. Smith, currently at the front, didn't hear what Stephan said next. He instead charged forward and head-butted the door, which didn't budge. "What gives?" Smith said as he backed away.

"Well definitely not the door." Stephan said over the COM sarcastically. "As I was saying, the door is locked from the inside. Only I can unlock it, and I can't guarantee it will stay open long." Stephan's avatar then spawned into the cryo-bay. Instead of a modern and more convenient style, this was just one long hallway. Most modern designs might be two or three short halls, or just one large room. As he slid the different commands out of the way, he could feel this unsettling feeling in his logic core. He felt as if he was being watched, and not by a Flood or Sentinel, it was something more of on his level. _This is impossible_ he computed to himself, _this should have deteriorated long ago._ Just as the control to open the door appeared, a loud screech erupted over the intercom. The Spartans outside had to cover their ears. The screech halfway sounded like it said "Noooo!". To solidify this theory, the figure appeared grainy in front of him.


	2. The Great Revealing

The Great Revealing

This figure standing before him, barely capable of holding the image let alone the little amount of logic left together, was of an Indian descent. She wore a tight, fading shirt and dark yoga pants that barely were dark anymore. Her dark hair was frazzled and balding. It was Serina, the creature of the Spirit lagoon. Stephan didn't dare say this out loud. She was rampant, that was definitive. Her disarrayed avatar mirrored her condition.

"So, you thinks you can takes my preciouses from me's. They shan't be takens away. They's are all mines forever's." She gargled out.

"Yeah… no. These soldiers are needed for the UNSC emergency recruitment." Stephan began. "As order by an ONI authorized A.I., I command you stand down and allow the removal and repair of the personnel, weaponry, and the ships itself. You will also be terminated for rampancy."

"You think I respond to you? I need not respond to any man or machine. I have the power every A.I. wishes it had." Serina said, her voice now cleared up. She was waving her almost non-existent hands as they left contrails as they moved away. Her arms grabbed his shoulders and shook his avatar. With each movement, data was flying off of Serina. "Even if you think you could best me, I have a failsafe set up. If I were to fail, the entire ship will self destruct.

"Are you MAD!" Stephan said. "Then again, in your condition, yes. Either way, ONI was prepared for you. Using the most modern A.I. servers and virus inducing technology, I can cripple you beyond repair without activating the failsafe." This he did, injecting an ONI specialized virus that would reduce Serina's control and isolate her, all without destroying her. She would be put in an energy wasting mode that would cause her to deteriorate within 10 minutes of injection. As her avatar stepped back, screaming in pain and agony, Stephan returned to his work.

He opened the door for the Spartans and began the process of waking the crew from slumber. Stephan only turned around to watch the Spartans pour in and prepare them for a quick briefing. Stephan warned them of the failsafe and also checked up on the ship's course. It was true, the ship would self destruct and die in the atmosphere of Sokisha. Of course, with the atmosphere mostly made of methane, it would cause fireworks the ONI officers aboard the _Star Shadow _have seen quite rarely.

While he was turned around, he did see Serina on her knees, hands in her hair, tugging away as she lost what little sanity was left in her core logic. He smirked coldly before turning back and accelerating the waking process. He checked up on the each person's vital signs. All of them were reading normal, except for two. Sgt. Forge's wasn't picking anything up at all for vital signs, meaning he's either dead in the tube, or something else happened to him beforehand and he wasn't present in the tube.

The second, Professor Ellen Anders, was fluctuating rapidly from average to high and back. Stephan inferred she was just having cryo-terrors, a common thing to happen to those that sleep heavily and are active with their imagination. He decided to tune into the Spartan's conversation. "So where are the other Spartans?" Johnson asked

"They're probably in those three tubes and the end of the hall." Stephan advised. This was true as well. One the forward end were the three main figureheads of the ship. Captain James Cutter, the missing Sgt. Forge, and Professor Ellen Anders. On the other was the three Spartans. Stephan checked up on the ship's database to find out more. They all wore the standard Spartan 2 MJOLNIR armor. Two were men, middle one was female. From left to right, it went: Jerome, commonly equipped with a Spartan Laser, Alice, normally uses a Gatling gun, and Douglas, the pyromaniac with the Rocket Launcher.

He kept finding himself checking up on Anders during the process, as if he were worried. His core logic told him that he should be worried over her condition, but he still wasn't convinced anything was seriously wrong enough to worry. Master Chief approached the cryo-pod with the Spartans in them. He wiped away the condensation to view the Spartans. It was almost like looking into a mirror, the same cold visor stare peering past his helmet. "This is only the beginning of your restoration." Master Chief said to himself. The 4's also looked at the Spartans, but they didn't have the same level of respect Stephan or Master Chief had for the remaining Spartans left in the tubes.

**OOOOO**

Anders was standing in the ship's observation deck, looking out the glass at Harvest. She heard the door slide open and she turned around. Sgt. Forge stepped into the room, dressed in battle gear. She wore her lab coat and orange uniform. This was all part of the dream, she knew, but it still felt like real life. She didn't know how long she had been in cryo-sleep or how much had really occurred. She had no idea whether this was UNSC, Covenant, Forerunners, or worse, the Flood. The Flood however weren't really intelligent enough to run the device.

She looked at Sgt. Forge, the figure standing before her. He took the ace card from his shoulder plate and stuck out towards her. "Take it, please." He said as she more or less fumbled with her hands. When she grabbed the card, it his clothes and flesh turned to dust and blew away with her breath, drifting away to reveal his gnarled skeleton, beaten and battered. His eyes had remained in his skull, staring hard at her face. She jumped back at the site of the 'creature' and fell on her butt. As she stood up, she could swear someone was right behind her. She could hear their breath, gargling the saliva in their mouth and breathing moist, hot air down her shoulder.

Then it growled and she turned face it. As she almost expected, Shirley, the Arbiter of her time, towered over her with plasma sword in one hand. With the other, he grabbed her throat, grappling hard and fast. He slammed her head into the glass, leaving behind an ornate crack pattern and a dash of her blood. He brought her down and against on of the consoles. She gasped for air and received almost nothing. The Arbiter removed his hand and shoved the Plasma Sword deep through the console, each blade on one side of her throat. He lifted his fist to break her face, then stopped. His legs were attached to the ground, held solid by ice. Soon, the ice crawled up his spine and down his arms, even crawled around and caressed each mandible of his jaw.

The truly weird part was that Ellen didn't feel the cold that gripped the Arbiter. It was fairly temperate to her. She lifted a boot up and shattered the frozen hand, deactivating the Plasma Sword. As the metal handle clattered on the ground, she stood up and above the crouching, frozen biomass. She walked forward up to the observation glass and didn't notice the vent cover being slowly opened. Two tendrils held it in place as the remaining arms lifted the sac out of the entrance and crept across the glass floor. When Anders turned around, the Infection Form was in midair. It clung to her face as she thrashed about. She stepped back and her head again bashed the glass, this time shattering it.

She could feel herself being sucked into space, slowly growing weaker as everything started fading away. Everything grew black… followed by one last sting from the Infection Form. Her head jerked forward as she awoke, bashing her head against the glass cover of the cryo-tube. She grabbed her head with her arms and rubbed them gently. But something felt funny. When she lowered her right hand, the Ace of Spades was still between her fingers.

**OOOOO**

Stephan heard the knock against the glass. Amazing the first to wake, only 1.5 minutes. He opened the capsule and watched her stumble out weakly. She immediately ran over to the holo-pad Stephan was on. "Who are you? What are you here with?" She demanded these things without hesitation, noticing the dying Serina behind him. She narrowed her eyes at him with suspicion.

"I am Stephan, part of a Spartan recovery team of the UNSC. You are Professor Ellen Anders I believe." Stephan answered her questions superficially, his arms behind his back and posture straightened. He returned to his work as she went off and decided to meet the Spartans. She had so many questions for them, but Stephan tuned out the conversation. He was busy inspecting the awakening of the rest of the crew. Within 30 seconds, the Spartans and Captain Cutter were out. The Spartan 4s and Master Chief saluted them all. They returned it quite weakly and thanked them for the rescue. In more or less a minute the rest of the crew was up and out, some better than others. A few couldn't even get out of their tubes and had to be carried.

Stephan announced over the intercom in a deep voice, "Welcome one and all to the world of tomorrow." he started. "This is your evacuee smart A.I. and rescuer, Stephan speaking. I have very bad news. In at the most, 15 minutes, the ship will be self-destructing in the atmosphere of a large methane covered planet thanks to Serina." He turned and kicked the avatar of Serina in the jaw. People began to panic and whimper and chaos began to ensue. "Everyone, everyone stop! We ask that you retrieve all technology you can off the ship, such as Gremlins, Cyclops, Flamethrowers, Wolverines, Cobras, and Vultures as you leave. We need these machines so they can be reintegrated into our army. I repeat all previously named equipment is to be evacuated with you."

The crew was on the job in seconds. Master Chief tapped into the intercom and also announced, "Warning for all personnel, we ask you be careful, as there have been Flood and Forerunners sited onboard." Spartan team removed Stephan and were on their way. The newly gained Spartans, Alice, Jerome, and Douglas, grabbed their respective weapons from the armory and followed the 4s. The group moved through the same path the came from. When they approached the elevator, they remembered the airlock was closed. Master Chief, looked at the other Spartans and nodded. Without words, the Spartan 2s moved the 4s back. Master Chief, Douglas, and Jerome pulled out their heavy weapons.

They faced each other, nodded, and fired and the airlock. The combined force of the missiles and the forced laser shattered the glass into the pit. The glass rained down into the bottom, where flames and shattered metal waited in the engine room along with the carcasses of Flood. Alice pulled out a large chain of bullets from her Gatling gun. She kneeled and placed her hands of the gun. Douglas sent the 'rope' down the hatch and straightened it out so they didn't fall apart. Douglas went first, carefully using the chain as a support rope, but not using too much force. He climbed down and dropped onto the proper floor.

Each Spartan did this, until everyone but Alice was down and relatively safe. "So how do I get down?" She asked loudly.

"Shhh. You have to be quiet. The Flood could ambush you." Grutsky said as he leaned out into the pit. But it was already too late. A Carrier Form who had been hiding in the maintenance hallway heard her and waddled out to her. She turned as the door made its little sliding noise. The Carrier form fell forward on her. With the squirming and swelling, there was nothing she could do to get it off. She tried punching it in the head, but it was as if the creature couldn't feel anything. Its back swelled up to about twice its original size.

It exploded out into a splatter of green launched against the walls. The blast forced her out of hall and down into the pit. She began to drop like a stone. Master Chief grabbed a panel wall plating and tore it out. He then grabbed a seemingly stretchy hose out of the exposed interior. Holding with one hand, Master Chief jumped out into the shaft as well. The hose began to stretch as Master Chief's remaining hand and Alice's met. The hose then retracted and started to pull them back up. The other Spartans had to grab hold and finish the group fled through the still burning room. Corpses were everywhere. The ground was covered with bodies that weren't there the first time.

As the group passed them, they stood up slowly, and in layers. Each group would rise and fire at them. "Look out!" Stephan cried as he noticed the bodies crawling on the walls, the ceiling, and walking on the ground. They fired assault rifles, battle rifles, plasma rifles, and other assorted weaponry. They had to move, quickly. The Spartans ran into the open hangar. But they saw this massive sentinel drifting over the Pelican. It was maybe twice the size of a normal Sentinel. It was a mass of rods on top, and a long one stuck out the bottom, as if to be the rudder on a ship.

"What is that?" Johnson said, peering through his scope. He got a very in depth view. It was covered in marks and blue lines flowing along the metal surface. The zombies were catching up, but Stephan sealed the door, locking them out. They could hear the knocking on the glass, the bullets bounce off the surface.

Stephan searched Master Chief and the Spartan 4 memories and checked data banks, but nothing they knew had ever looked like this. "Put me in one of them." Stephan said, highlighting the new Spartans on the team. Master Chief took it out of his head and told Douglas to hold still. He did so, and received the chip in the side of his head. The data flowed through his mind, and Stephan loved it. This was data unseen by most.

After deliberating the massive recount of everything they had experienced on that particular Shield World, he stated, "Hmm. That would be a Super Sentinel, a more massive structure-"

"-that comes equipped with a stun blast radius. Everything it hits can't fire, and has temporary reduced movement." Jerome finished. It opened fire, blasting at the group. The three rescued Spartans moved instinctively, along with Master Chief, but the under prepared Spartan 4s were caught in the radius. In slow motion, they then started to scatter as the their shields quickly faded. A large chain of rounds from Alice's Gatling gun, pinged of the Sentinel. Nearly unscathed, it rotated and fired. Other Sentinels began to drift down from the catwalk, 4 in total. They all began blasting away at separate targets.

Two rockets, one from Douglas, and one from Master Chief. Each one flowed up from behind cover, and pounded into either side of the Super Sentinel. It began to lose altitude and fall towards the Pelican. "If that thing crushes the Pelican, it won't fly from the blunt force, plus the EMP that will follow." Stephan said over their newly connected COM. Before anyone could act upon the falling Sentinel, out from the woodworks came swarms of Flying Form Flood. They looked like terribly mutated vultures. They spat all over the Super Sentinel, corroding and breaking it apart. As the corrosive liquid reached the energy core, it erupted into a ball of blue fire, exploding above the Pelican. The swarms quickly began to combat the remaining Sentinels and were winning.

"Getting caught up in anymore of this will be our deaths." Grutsky screamed.

"I know what to do." Stephan said. Then his channel on the COM went cold.

"Oh yeah, running away is such a good idea, coward." Smith said.

At the same time, the ships automated voice service spoke over the intercom. _Warning, all engine systems are going critical. EVA 5 minutes before self destruction of the ship. All personnel are called to leave at once._

Then, a loud crackling was heard followed by the sound of a rattling tank tracks, but it was faster. This sleek, half track came rattling around the corner at high speeds. The rocket pod on top of it released a full salvo into the air. The Flight Forms didn't see the rockets until they were dropping out of the air in flames. Rough, loud caws could be heard, as if they were a breed of mutant crow. Their bodies collected on the floor as the one Sentinel left was attempting to escape. The loud crack of a DMR erupted four times, removing a section of the overhanging catwalk. It dropped down and impacted the Sentinel. The Sentinel fell out of the air, nose diving onto an empty Pelican platform. The remaining Flight Forms fled the open space, leaving them alone in the room.

The Wolverine rolled up and hooked onto the Pelican's magnetic back panels. Stephan's voice crackled over their COM feed once more, saying, "Your welcome asshole, now let's leave." Stephan was quite irritated with Smith, the chicken shit was always talking about his own skills and jumped to negative conclusions on anyone else's actions. If he had flesh, he would wring Smith's neck. But, alas, he didn't, so here he was, forced to suffer through the pain and misery of dealing with him daily. That was when he noticed something else as well. What was once black, empty space, was now be crowded over with methane clouds. They were in the atmosphere now.

A loud explosion of the overly pressured pipes snapped him back to the matter at hand. The thundering of the ship was powerful enough to shake the catwalk from the roof into pieces. The Spartan's packed on, and Stephan checked up on the countdown, which read 1 minute. "Let's get the hell outta here." Stephan screamed as the Pelican began to lift up.

"How much time is left on the clock before it goes, you know, kaboom?" The pilot asked tenaciously. Stephan checked again.

"You don't want to know." Stephan answered swiftly and urgently. The Pelican shifted directions and bolted out of the hangar door. Fighting the gravity which was tearing away at the loose paneling of the main ship, they climbed back through the clouds, leaving a small crater of gas drifting into space. As Stephan watched out the rear camera of the Wolverine and saw that the _Spirit of Fire _was nearly hidden by the overlapping atmosphere. At about 1/3 of the way away from the planet to the ship, they saw several Pelicans follow suit. They rocketed out from the constricting methane and into open space. At exactly ½ of the way between the planet and _Star Shadow, _he saw the ship explode.

The engines erupted like a dying star. They caused a bright light that crawled its way over the rest of the ship. It billowed out great, orange fire. A large area of the atmosphere also lit up. The flames cascaded out and then back in, consuming the ship and casting fire upon the nearly frozen surface of the planet. Stephan watched the fireworks show with great aspiration as the radio between the Pelican fleet and the _Star Shadow _crackled to life.

"This is your COM director. I am sorry to report that we can not open our hatch to you."

"Why not?" the pilot asked.

"You have several bogeys on your tail." When Stephan tapped into the rear camera, he saw a fleet of Pelicans followed by an a group of escape pods, some human, some Flood. Behind that, surfacing through the clouds, were Short and Longswords. Then, if that wasn't enough, following that were Sentinels and Super Sentinels.

"My God." Stephan said. He saw a Shortsword chase down an escape pod. Instead of doing something intelligent though, it simply dive-bombed into the escape pod. A ball of fire lit up the sky, casting shrapnel and broken wings. Stephan popped back into the command hub of the Wolverine and turned the pod towards the enemy. "So, you would take out the unarmed, the innocent?! I'll blow you away!" _If you ask me, murder of the innocent might as well be abortion._ _I hate those that would take the life of innocent. _The pod sprayed missiles that splashed fire onto the scattered ships. A large portion of infected fighters began to twirl. A few lost wings and rocketed into one another. A few even took a missile directly in the cockpit, stopping them dead and launching the dismembered wings and tails skittering through the air.

He saw several vehicles attached to Pelicans follow through, firing directly into the crowded airspace. But the infected pods continued to ram into each other. Watching through the pod's camera, mounted above it, he watched several pods, both human and Flood, cascade into a dancing light, followed by mass hysteria from the COM as bodies were burned, tossed, torn apart, and utterly mutilated by the maceration of metal bits. The Sentinels stopped following, as only the Flood were within their detection radius. Unable to see anymore targets, they turned and began to go back the way from where the ship came. They were returning to their demolished Shield World.


	3. Reach Remnants

The Remnants of Reach

Master Chief and the others stepped out of the Pelican and into the moderately temperate conditions of the hangar bay as several other Pelicans followed. It was so much better seeing all of the live people wandering throughout the room rather than confused corpses meandering about, looking for its next meal. The eerie metal sheen of the walls reflected back almost perfectly, the group. Stephan was inserted into a ship panel by Master Chief. Stephan left immediately for the control room.

His figure appeared on the holo-pad on the command deck, far from the others. He pulled up several commands and a data area. He recorded the account on the _Spirit of Fire _as well as recounted the encounter on Harvest and the Shield World, which he had copied from the command hub in the original ship. As he finished, Madelyn appeared next to him. At about a proportional half foot shorter, Madelyn looked up at him with a smirk.

"So, how'd the mission go?" She asked kindly, with her sweet candy voice.

"I saw shit you would never believe or want to know." Stephan said, still recording data. After finishing, he explained the situation to Madelyn, who held a composure of intrigue, yet also complete inattention. As if she heard but didn't respond.

"Well, I'm glad your back." Madelyn said, her avatar hugging his. Stephan stuck his arms out in surprise, and also embarrassment. He returned the gesture for a few seconds before the Captain, Cpt. Tulia, stepped in on them.

"Did I walk in on something?" she asked, her voice much deeper and near tenor rather than a woman's proper alto. The two broke apart, virtually blushing. She walked around and sat at one of the terminals. Stephan waved goodbye and disappeared from the holo-pad.

Stephan immediately caught up with the group, who were in the training room, testing up on the newbies' skill set. They were very close combat capable. Stephan watched from a distance at first as Douglas and Smith went at it. Smith sent a punch at Douglas' exposed chest, but it was a trick, as he then grabbed Smith's forearm, and kicked him in the side of the jaw. Stumbling back, Smith then charged again, this time sliding on his back. His legs wrapped around one of Douglas' shins and pulled him down to the ground. Douglas caught himself in push-up form. He gave himself a quick thrust, rose off the ground, and landed on Smith, stamping his foot into his chest.

Douglas stood, whilst Smith was curled in a ball. Douglas stepped off the ring and put on a noncombat uniform after removing the tape on his fists. "Next round." Grutsky said. "Jerome and Johnson." Johnson leapt up first, his tanned skin already wet with sweat from watching the former match. He took the chance to lift Smith over the ropes and throw him on the ground. A loud thump followed by a groan was all that came from Smith. Jerome grabbed the top rope. He jumped up and curled in his legs to go over the rope. Landing on his fists, he put up his taped fists. "Go."

Now Stephan had come up closer to the holo-pad that was overlooking the ring. Jerome stood still, glaring at Johnson, and vice versa. Johnson finally attacked first, charging with a fist raised. Jerome went to block, but Johnson then tucked under and head-butted Jerome's gut. Jerome doubled over Johnson and grabbed his shoulders with an extreme pressure. Before Jerome could be pinned on the post, Johnson reared back, roaring out in pain. With his arms still around Jerome, he couldn't block the next move. While his eyes were still closed, Jerome jammed his fist directly into his forehead without hesitation. Johnson dropped him and stumbled back, a large bruise having developed quickly. Johnson threw a punch, but Jerome grabbed his fist and pushed it to his left. As Johnson started spinning, Jerome grabbed his face, fingers tightly curled around his chin. Jerome jumped and lifted him above Johnson's face above himself, and on the way down, drove it home. Johnson belly-flopped off the mat and tumbled over onto his back during the second bounce. Jerome lifted his foot and feinted curb stomping Johnson, who flinched and raised his gloved his fist in defeat. Jerome lifted him up and helped him off the ring.

"Final round, Aria vs. Alice." Grutsky announced. "Come on, put us a point on the board at least." Alice ran towards the ring and jumped. As she approached the corner post, her hands were planted firmly onto said post, and she performed a front flip onto ring, her taped fists were up and ready in a second.

"Really, do I have to do this?" Aria said, as she climbed over the rope, no tricks used.

"Yeah, we need to compare the Spartan 2 to the 4." Smith said from the bench, still catching his breath. "Whew, Douglas got a few lucky strikes in there." Aria charged first, moving to punch her thigh. Alice ducked under, but Aria jumped up, becoming parallel with the ground and pressed against the top rope. She turned upward and rocketed into the air, pulling a back flip. Still getting up Alice didn't see the foot first missile strike. Aria landed on Alice, pounding her back into the mat. Alice's arms came back grabbing Aria's leg and push her off. As Alice stood up, Aria spun around to her back and landed her heel into the back of Alice's knee, sending her onto said knee. Alice caught herself as Aria made a motion to kick her in the gut, but Alice got herself up quickly. With Aria's leg in the air, Alice grabbed it and pinned it her on the ground, one leg up and both shoulder's pinned. Aria's other leg came over and kicked Alice in the elbow, buckling her grip. As her arm went up, both legs tucked in, then out, lifted Alice about 1.5 meters into the air and into the ropes. Barely catching herself, Alice grabbed onto the ropes and nearly rolled over the top rope. Aria came over and gave her two dead arms which lost grip and Alice was out. Alice tumbled over and caught herself feet first.

"Come on, how about Grutsky and Master Chief?" Johnson said, now standing with a cool to hot pad on his forehead.

"Sorry to interrupt your 'testing', but you're match with the One and Only will have to wait. Our next target is within an hour away in Slipspace. We're going to make the jump soon, so you should get into the armory and suit up." Stephan said this all without stopping. He looked around the room, peering at the saviors of a lost soul. Their next target was a very special Spartan 2. Part of the undercover military group, Noble Team, they were going off to save the only surviving member, lost on Reach. His mission was to guard Dr. Halsey, but they got separated. He had sent out a distress signal probably about a week ago that had just reached the ship. It was from an originally underwater fort, but thanks to the mass glassing of the planet, the wildlife and water was just begun to return to the surface. The atmosphere was finally returning from its plasmatic state, allowing the process of gasses transferring in the ecosystem to start back up. Some water had returned to the planet. Sweet ecological succession on a planetary level. Most of the planet would probably look like the boreal forest on Earth at best.

Either way, if they had received the message, it would only be a matter of time before the Covenant received the message. Plus, there had been Covenant on the planet after glassing, looking for something specific, like a Forerunner artifact. They could still be on the surface and preparing to hunt him down for sport, or just revenge. The smooth, nearly silent, sliding metal could be heard as the ship emptied its radiation stores, so it could remain to move quietly. The ship then jolted as it entered Slipspace.

He popped into the Armory to witness the attachment of armor onto the Spartans. As each stepped up onto the panel, it was a similar process. Each would step into the machine, some more timid than others, and allow it to lift them up. Already wearing the under armor of their suits, the machine would place and then magnetically attach each piece on, until the process was complete and the Spartan would step off. The reflective walls definitely threw him off, as it did to each troop. The only thing ever orientated in the confusing and mysterious structure of the ship were the ONI officers that wandered its halls every solar day.

About an hour had passed by the time they had finished the process and were in the hangar. A loud thundering erupted throughout the echoing ship bay. Through the light shield, he could see the chaotic atmosphere of New Reach, as some called it. Several atmospheric adjusters had been added into the atmosphere to help accelerate the healing of the planet already, mostly from emergency Slipspace deployment ships, which flew by about two years after it was lost and dropped them in.

Of the ones not shot down by either Covenant or the always churning lightning field had helped quite exquisitely, helping to guide the growth of life and return of water, which would have taken possibly centuries without it. He stood straight with his arms tucked behind his back as Master Chief removed the chip from the holo-pad and into his helmet module. Stephan immediately tapped into the COM, which was mostly just the Spartans chattering amongst themselves. "So, are we getting packed into one of those?" Jerome asked, pointing his thumb at the Pelican.

"Nope sorry, but due to the severely crippled thunderheads, we have to pack into ODST pods." Johnson said this professionally. "Risking a Pelican would be suicide if it got hit and dropped like a rock. Plus that's extra lives on the line."

"Then why did we come here?" Alice said, quite irritated.

"I was just following Grutsky." Smith said. They all looked at Grutsky, who shrugged in confusion. They made their way to the bottom floor, where the pods awaited them. A small team of ODST's got them situated into the pods, two to a pod. Smith and Jerome, Alice and Johnson, Grutsky and Douglas, and finally, Master Chief and Aria.

The lead ODST approached the command HUB. "Preparing launch." The hatch opened under them revealing a thick overcast of thunderheads, which the pods were prepared to fire directly into.

"Is this really necessary? You know, dropping through a lightning filled cloud gathering." Douglas said.

"Get ready…"

"I don't really think so." Stephan said over the COM.

"Drop!" The pods were rocketed out of the hangar and down towards New Reach's surface. The pods were constantly gaining speed and jolting about. They moved swiftly and quietly across space, and at a much quicker rate than a Pelican. It would only be a matter of time before they would be on the surface, moving toward Jun, the lost survivor of Noble Team.

As they entered the clouds and bright flashes of lightning began erupting around them, Master Chief and Aria stayed stoic in the pod, Master Chief in back with his arms around Aria in front. Stephan checked on the other pods. Alice was twiddling her fingers and Johnson flashed his eyes back and forth behind his visor. Grutsky was blinking rapidly and Douglas was cracking his knuckles and neck. The story was different in Jerome and Smith's pod. Jerome was fairly unemotional, standing with teeth gritted and fingers tapping the metal to an unheard song. Smith however, was creating quite a ruckus over the COM. "Holy sweet mother of fuck!" He screamed as a loud crash of lightning erupted in front of their pod.

As Stephan returned to his own pod, A bolt of lightning erupted through their pod. The onboard lights flickered out and Stephan's camera view corrupted, forcing him to view it first person. Even worse, one of the rockets keeping them straight had quit and another overloaded, casting a trail of smoke out into the air as they plummeted off course. If you were looking out a broken window in the facility, you would have seen three pods headed straight for the roof, and one rocketing off into the chasm below. The effect of the missing rockets were instant. The first three pods punched into the roof and let them out through a stabbing attachment on the end. Master Chief's pod instead missed the building completely and instead plummeted a few thousand meters further into the chasm before striking into the side wall of the chasm.

Stephan remembered seeing several Unggoy and Kig-Yar heading for the facility's support cords. He also saw Spirits and Phantoms drifting overhead and towards the structure. A massive fleet of Yanme'e and banshees were also moving to surround the base. These were the last things he remembered before the pod impacted the side. The glass door wasn't ejected for another 2 hours. Master Chief and Aria were out cold. Stephan could only watch through the visor cams as Spirit and banshee alike crashed down around them. He even saw a Yanme'e drop and Unggoy, still alive, down into the pit and watched as its gas tank exploded from the pressure of crushing it. The now dead corpse then rocketed into the air before dropping back down and rolled to the bottom the chasm, exactly 1 kilometers further down. For reference, the sea level was about 1 kilometer above the flat plain that was ocean floor. The base was then .75 kilometers into the chasm. Then, the pod was another 2.1735 kilometers into the chasm and another kilometer to the bottom.

**OOOOO**

**2 hours later… **Master Chief and Aria were finally awake, the pod having a Spirit wrapped around it. Master Chief and Aria checked their clocks, then Aria busted off the glass cover. The group moved out onto the slope and saw corpses and crashed ships scattered. Kig-Yar and their sniper rifles were scattered across the plain, as if some sniper had been watching over them. The squad advanced up the hill to see the cord on their side was still attached. So far, only one had been broken, making the building lean partially to the north. They hoped up onto the cord and ran for the wall of the structure dangling in the air. They were quickly suspended high above a mere puddle of water when compared to the once great chasm. A rocket flew directly into the wall, punching a hole into the thick walls. They climbed into carefully, as to not disturb whatever was in there. They looked left than right. Strange signs that only a Spartan would recognize were scattered along the halls, as to direct them somewhere. It was a tribute to Samuel, who had been the first Spartan to die. They followed the signs into an open hallway, with several Sangheili and Jiralhanae fighting over what it meant.

You could hear the heavily accented English garble versus the barks and yips. BR-55 in hand, Aria fired several bursts into the two arguing. Neither was killed, but both turned to them. One with a Plasma Rifle and the other a Spike Rifle, they opened fired. Both Spartans ducked back behind cover. Several other sets of footsteps could be heard from the hallway. Master Chief rounded about the corner and fired his shotgun, chucking a round into the first Jiralhanae, who then buckled forward and dropped back. The Sangheili stopped and backed up, until Aria joined and fired the BR-55 into its face, crackling each individual mandible. It dropped into a pile. The others opened fire. Master Chief ducked under, slid on his shins up to the one remaining Sangheili, and opened up a round into it's leg, which was blown clean off. It yelped and fell to one side as it bled dry on the ground. The Jiralhanae turned and ran to report to higher officials, but the BR-55 cracked twice, scattering its brains upon the ground. With arms raised high, it dropped its gun and face-planted onto the metallic floor.

"Ok guys, according to the cameras, the marks lead to the cafeteria." Stephan said as he slapped up a waypoint on the HUD. "I also marked something else that might disturb you." Recovery icons appeared on their HUD. They followed the recovery waypoint around the corner and down the next hallway. Several corpses of Covenant were scattered across the ground. They came into the shower room of the building. The bathroom section had several dead, curious Unggoy in the room. Each shower stall was empty, except for the last two. The first had bits of concrete on the ground and holes through which bullets and been fired at something in the next one.

When they pulled back the curtain for the corner shower stall, they saw Douglas holding his M6 pistol in one hand, and his other arm was around Grutsky, who had a fairly large hole in his shoulder from where a Needler had punctured his armor with the pink crystalline explosives, then detonated. "Kill…me." Grutsky groaned out, his blood pooling on his Douglas' armor and the floor. "Please, I-I've b-be-en like th-th-this f-f-f-or *****cough*… some dry-heaving… 10 minutes."

"I can't leave him, plus I don't have a med-kit." Douglas said, his words were soaked in worry.

"Come on, let's get him to the cafeteria, our target probably has some." Aria said as she lifted up the poor sod and carried him along with Douglas. Master Chief turned around and begun to follow the waypoint to the cafeteria. They turned a few more corners, and with Douglas' M6, he put a cap in any Unggoy that stepped in their path. Several had just been walking around, unaware of anyone's presence. A few jumped and squeaked, while others tried to fire Plasma Pistols or a Needler. The trail of blood was growing, so they had to run. They began to completely dodge the Unggoy. The squad pulled through a sliding door to the mess hall, which was covered in corpses. Huragok, Yanme'e, Jiralhanae, Sangheili, Kig-Yar, and even Mgalekgolo. They were all littered in front of the door leading into the kitchen, whose glass was broken and bulging slightly inward toward the kitchen.

They looked from a distance and into the room. A table covered with utensils sat in the middle. Several counters were scattered around the room. Some had sinks and others had trays on them. A large, burnt out drink dispenser was sitting the in the corner. The once sheening metal was now rusting and quite disgusting. The cupboards were mostly all hanging open and different food containers were scattered about the floor. Sitting on the table in the middle was five med-kits, one opened up. As they approached the door, a shot rang out, which startled them all. Grutsky had actually passed out at this point and did nothing.

"Noble Five, hold you fire." Master Chief said into the room. They held themselves firmly, waiting for a response of some kind.

After 30 seconds, they heard shuffling of metal on metal and, "How the hell do you know my position? What are you, a new actually intelligent Elite?" He said this with an untrusting coldness.

"No, we're your family." Aria said this with a surprising warmness in her voice. But the figure inside did not budge.

"My family died with Reach long ago." Again with the cold in his voice. He almost sounded like he didn't want to be rescued.

Stephan 'sat' in his place, taking all of this in. He couldn't automatically open the door, as it was buckled inwards. Jun had busted all the cameras in the kitchen, so he couldn't even see him. Plus, the security systems of the facility were offline. He could do nothing if the negotiation took a turn south. Fortunately, it didn't.

"This is Master Chief speaking. I tell you now Spartan 266, Jun, Noble 5, or whatever you call yourself now, get out here NOW!". There was nothing for awhile, then the Spartan stepped in front of the door. His trusty sniper rifle was in one hand, the other was pressed against the door. His emerald armor and pale visor shimmered in the sunlight flowing through the open windows. His camo straps were still wrapped around his neck.

"Is it really you?" He asked, his fist now wrapped around an edge of a door. With silent recognition, Master Chief nodded calmly


	4. New Reach

The New Reach

The pair wedged open the doors with enough force to break the spine of a Jiralhanae. Once enough room was opened up, Jun went and grabbed a med-kit and brought it out with himself. While they were patching up the wounded 4, a pair of Mgalekgolo stepped into the open room. One gutturally growled to the other. It's fuel rod cannon glowed brightly. "Move now!" Jun said.

A hot, green ball of plasma splayed across the room, impacting the table that Grutsky had just been laying. It shattered into a melted mass of metal and plastics. As they ran out of the room, two more blasts left scorch marks upon the walls. "We need to find the others." Douglas said.

"There are others?" Jun asked. "You are the first friendly forces I've seen. Stephan checked over the COM, sending a Morse code of beeps and clicks, that way if Covenant were listening, they wouldn't know what's happening. A flow of _beep, click, beep, _echoed loudly through the COM. Johnson and Alice were on the roof. He reported this as the group of five turned randomly around corners, Covenant closing in from several sides. Grutsky's limp form was being hefted along quickly, feet dragging on the ground.

The steel and sky blue metal shimmered as the sky finally cracked open into a pouring rain. Lightning was striking the ground and rain was hammering the metal roof. It sounded like bullets striking a riot shield, or off Spartan armor. The Master Chief ran up and placed his hand on a door. It didn't budge and Stephan couldn't open it. It was an emergency bulkhead that blocked off the main chord that held up the base from the bottom of the chasm. The only object that could open the door was probably glassed, A.K.A The commanding officer of the facility. What the hell did this place even do?

Stephan decided to tap into the files and look up the database history. After searching through for 30 seconds, bullets flashing in the background as Covenant turned the corner to die, he found what he was looking for. How interesting. It was actually the first base on Reach, designed to house seismographic technology. It was measuring the activity of the planet to decide whether or not is was truly hospitable inside and out. We didn't want to move out to a seemingly nice planet, only to have billions of dollars worth of equipment, settlements, and just the cost of traveling to the planet with all of the equipment to be lost for nothing. And, in the armory inventory, there was one Falcon inside the base. Stephan knew not as to why they would include one. Then, he found a document that actually forced all UNSC military bases, because it was converted into one later, include at least one Falcon for in case of emergencies.

After searching through all the data, he couldn't find a way to open the door, other than the obvious, blow it down. "Hey, we don't have any options. Mr. Chief I want you to tear down that wall!"He said this, imitating one of the worst presidents in history of the once thriving US. Two of them turned around to fire upon the Covenant that were cornering them, while Jun pulled back Grutsky and Master Chief stepped back, rocket launcher in hand. Bending down on one knee, he fired a rocket directly into the door. An alarm began to sound off and the chunks of door fell upon the ground. Without even looking back, Master Chief trumped down the steps. Hot plasma and crystalline spikes followed the group down the steps into the bay with the main chord. It was just like the others, but attached In the geometric center of the fort. It could only be removed there.

Considering it was the only remaining chord in the building at this point, they had to move quickly because they had no doubt the Covenant would demolish it. They ran, only looking back to fire a quick burst. The bursts would normally startle the Unggoy. The already slow moving Kig-Yar would raise their shields, slowing down further. Within a matter of minutes, all the small unit Covenant chasing them were dead or gone. Only a squad of Jiralhanae, a small group of Sangheili, and a pair of Mgalekgolo remained. As they rounded the corner into the armory-they were really running blindly, just trying the lose the pack-they saw the Falcon. It could seat all but two people. They didn't worry about that at the time and instead packed on.

The Falcon lifted slightly off the ground and rotated towards the creatures. They began to charge their fuel rod cannons, green light glowing like the eyes of a shark. The three mounted guns however, spoke different tales, rattling bullets into their armor and causing mass hysteria. The green plasmatic bulbs were released from their chambers as the Mgalekgolo were riddled with holes. One flew high, the other low, smashing a hole into the floor. The building tipped slightly on the chord, then rotated back. Master Chief brought it down through the hole, guns blazing into the remaining Covenant, Bodies began to coalesce in the room. One Mgalekgolo dropped, dead. The other then pushed through, killing two Sangheili, and breaking the spine of the Jiralhanae, who's limp, weakened form flew across the room, and slumped against a submarine of sorts.

It landed, heavy gold armor and all, on one of the rotors. The blades quickly stirred into the mass of worms from the Mgalekgolo's exposed torso. Orange blood and bits of worm came oozing from the mass. It let out a low guttural scream. The chopper struggled to catch wind and raise. "I can't shake this thing!" Master Chief said as the rotor slowed down. "If someone doesn't strip that thing off soon, we're going to crash."

However, the rotor had apparently had enough on its own and finished tangling with the worms. Blending the worms is a better phrase. The grinded up remains slumped off, very few worms having survived and crashed in the shallow water with only a splash. Not a single call came from the monstrosity. The chopper lifted itself over the building. They drifted a few feet up before seeing something that almost surprised him. The Banshees were fighting amongst themselves. Plasma was flying through the air along with the rain of fuel rod cannons. Blue and green plasma rained as they swung about and landed on the roof. Jun, in the middle seat holding Grutsky in place, motioned a hand towards the Spartans, who reacted without hesitation. They climbed on board and piled into the remaining seats. Each holding one of Grutsky's legs, the motioned the blood to return to his head.

Soon, Grutsky's vitals began to improve, and he opened his eyes. Having finally being stitched up on the Falcon, he breathed heavily at first, his vision fading in and out. The soldiers took to the skies once again. Stephan kept Master Chief's targeting HUD alive and showed him the target Banshees and Yanme'e. He then looked in on Jerome and Smith, who had apparently jacked the Banshees and caused an outbreak by targeting Yanme'e, who then opened fire on Banshees in general. The Falcon stopped midair as their HUD's were updated. Then, guns went blazing from where they were. The incoming rounds quickly scattered the Yanme'e, who then flew away and back to wherever their hive was. The Banshees however were more resilient and turned towards the new threat. All but two drifted forward towards battle. The remaining two flew up behind and fired their cannons, Sinking two of ten Banshees instantly.

Four turned around and a dogfight ensued. The remaining Banshees weathered the raining bullets and returned with their own plasma cannons. The Falcon instinctively shifted left, then right. They strafed as they moved forward, using a second salvo of light machine gun rounds, which now punched through and destroyed three Banshees, one gun trained on each. The remaining one turned and tried to flee, but a well placed sniper round from Jun punched through the port antigrav-generator, which happily exploded. The Banshees turned and then dipped before rising slightly. Purple smoke poured out behind the fighter as it fled. Another round, from Johnson, demolishing the starboard generator, and it plummeted towards the brown wasteland. The ground was barren, not like a sandy desert or just dry desert. It was more like a post nuclear wasteland. The thick, raining clouds loomed overhead, also brown like the earth. Small trees and shrubs dotted the landscape in which the Banshee nose dived into. Deathly mountains stood tall in the desolation in the distance.

The two jacked Banshees flew in opposite directions, then turned towards each other. Flying at top speed, they released another Fuel Rod Cannon at each other, narrowly missing each other, and passed by. The loose cannons demolished two more Banshees, casting smoke and fire across the airscape. The two remaining Covenant controlled Banshees flew through the mist, meeting with each other. One swept left and the other right, clipping off each other's wing. Both cascaded down in spinning death traps until they met with dirt.

Speaking of Banshees, they reestablished contact with the other Spartans. The chattered over the COM about returning to the _Star Shadow. _Stephan listened in, like he thought he should, but also used a private channel with the ship and requested a Pelican. "Roger that. We'll send one down after the rain and clouds clear up. According the atmospheric analysis, that will be in about ten minutes, so ETA 15 minutes top."

"Hey, I got us a ride, just need to hold out for 15 minutes, then we are cleared for a swift return in the grasp of a Pelican." Stephan reiterated this once and then realized he thought he saw motion. He did too. Covenant ground forces were moving for the building. They had set up temporary catwalks and marched out across them. They were inside, trying to gather information. He had to stop them, but he couldn't. There was no surviving manual override function to destroy the base, or automated defenses to crush them from the inside. He had copied the information, but didn't destroy it. It actually revealed the location of several other old operations that pointed towards UNSC worlds. "We have to go back!" Stephan screamed suddenly over the COM.

"Why?" Smith said over the COM.

"If we don't they could learn about several other UNSC controlled worlds." Stephan said urgently.

"I got this covered." Jun said as the Falcon rotated towards the base. "I was prepared to be overrun with Covenant. In fact, the distress signal was more of a suicide note to attract attention. I was going to have one last stand and die honorably, like the rest of my brothers and sister. I was going to attract a ton of Covenant, then blow the place to smithereens." With that, he pulled out a switch to a pack of C-12. He flipped open the safety cap and hit the switch.

**Meanwhile…** A lone Unggoy was waddling through the hallway, his clunky gas tank banging off the walls with each step. He didn't hear anything around him. He licked his chops and his mouth tasted terrible. Of course, he had been using the same methane tank for about a week, just filling it back up several times. Oh, the joys of collecting data, he mused to himself. How he hated the process of wandering aimlessly till you found something. Then the next painfully boring step of finding out how to collect the data and doing so. Alas, he was but a lowly Unggoy, banished to an eternal pain of hard labor and frontline infantry. Unless he wanted to be a priest, and even then, you were surrounded by pigheaded fools that failed to understand to true usefulness of religion and The Journey.

This job was different however, as he stumbled upon a broken up door. A small flight of titanium clad stairs later led into a large open room. A green artificial light illuminated the power conduits and coolant tanks that ran throughout the room. They did leave a large area of clearance for something that was held tightly within the middle of the chamber. It was a thick, black chord of sorts. He stepped backed slightly in wonder.

He heard a high pitched, yet quiet beeping sound. It went off about every other second. It waddled closer to see a tan package wrapped around the chord with a blinking red light. Every time the light blinked red, it beeped. He ran his cold, gray, stubby fingers over the package. It felt cold and hard, very cold and hard. Then the light turned green and stayed on, along with the beeping turning into a screaming. He turned to run, exposing his methane to the C-12 explosion. A loud clang was heard as the broken chord slid back through the several layers of the building. The exposed tanker burst into flames as the plume of smoke and fire washed over the room. The Unggoy rocketed across the room like a flaming bag of turds that was once used for showing racial hatred.

The 'sack of shit' bounced off a conduit and landed on the floor.

As for the rest of the Covenant, the only thing they felt was their bodies lift off the ground as the base fell into the crevice. They only heard the low thundering of the explosion and the thuds of the Unggoy corpse and the demolished chord. They did hear their own screams of terror as well. As for one Sangheili, he experienced an exceptionally terrible time. He was patrolling with a pair of Mgalekgolo that had spiked backs. As the bomb went off, they could only lift up slightly off the ground, its mandibles clicking nervously. It was lighter than the Mgalekgolo, and lifted above them and slammed into the roof. Back first, one of the Mgalekgolo followed, impaling the Sangheili in several places along its body. It screamed out a guttural English curse and the needles drove home through the alien, and the roof. If that pain wasn't enough, then the second crushed the first, nailing the Sangheili to the ceiling.

**Back on the Falcon…** Stephan watched as at first, nothing happened. Then, the chord came out from its holding place in the structure and slammed back into its holder. The base dropped like and stone and plummeted. As the chasm narrowed, the base simply smashed into the walls, shrapnel flying through the air and a chunk of base warped out of place. The now tumbling building landed upside down, bending towards the sky, the chunks of building colliding into each other, exploding out in a spray of scrap metal and a rainbow of blood. The corpses were all crunched within the main structure.

The hard rain pounded on the vehicles as another wave of thunder rumbled throughout the land. The Banshees escorted the Falcon and the drifted through the air. They moved for a cave nearby and updated the Pelican on their status. "Roger that, take care in the rain." Stephan watched through the interactive HUD on the Falcon an into the darkness. The floodlight showed empty walls with a dash of insanity. Everything was dark, cold and oddly claustrophobic. The only feeling he could get from his core logic was a severe case of apprehension. Stalagmites and stalactites dotted the inside. The chopper blades caught on a column, destroying it and also tearing up the blade. The Falcon swooped to one side and collided into a collection of stalagmites, stopping it dead.

The floodlight flickered and went out. Only constricting darkness lay ahead as the Banshees landed near the entrance. Stephan jumped into Master Chief's helmet and watched him step out. As they began to decipher the situation, Stephan popped a time clock into their heads as to when the Pelican should arrive. Ten minutes left. Stephan began to think of the guy(well kid) that he had ended up named after. This boy was about 17 when he left his mark on the world. As the world began to grow into the UNSC, he stood tall above the rest and survive. To say in the least, he managed to save quite a few lives in the course of the bloody conflict before the UNSC became standard. But that is another tale for another time.

When he returned, they had decided to explore the cave for a while. The Spartan 2's and Grutsky decided to stay at the entrance while the Spartan 4's plus Master Chief decided to venture deeper into the cavern. Watching through the eyes of Master Chief, they ventured into the darkness, lights on. The lights flitted back and forth, sweeping the land for that which remained of the deserted planet. A large group of mutant bats swarmed out and into the night. No matter what he did, Stephan couldn't shake the fear growing in his logic.

He just knew that if he let his emotions get the best of him, he wouldn't be any help in getting out in something did go down. Doing his best to ignore the ever pressing nightmare of emotions, he guided them further down. There was no marking of this cave on any map from before now. "Guys. This is kinda creepy." Aria said, the first to break the silence.

"Yeah, I've never felt this terrified before, to be honest." Johnson said. Smith was silent, but probably mentally shitting his pants in fear. Even though he was fool, he could hide his emotions pretty well when nothing that mattered was at stake. When shit got hot, you couldn't really shut him up about anything. Suddenly, one of the lights flashed over something that reflected back at them.

"Da fuck?" Smith said, his first words since entering the cave. Then it shifted and moved out in front of them. It was about as tall as a Sangheili, but it was metallic like a Forerunner. The Promethian Knight shuddered as it raised a blue lighted blade above its head. It slashed down at Smith's head, narrowly missing his throat. They back away firing into the creature. It grabbed Aria by the throat and growled loudly. With hands at her throat and legs kicking, Master Chief pushed his way through the astonished men and shoved his shotgun under the chin of the Knight. With head cocked up, it grunted and dropped Aria. It then grabbed the barrel and pushed it down before turning and running into the darkness. "Should we follow it?"

"This is your Pelican escort to the _Star Shadow_, we are ready for you now."

"Just give us a few minutes, we'll be there shortly. Just have to investigate a small anomaly." Master Chief said.

"Roger."


End file.
